SEO Tricks: How To Optimize Images In WordPress
Did you know that optimizing the images you upload to your website can improve your SEO ? In this post we will understand the optimization process as well as its techniques to apply it to web pages.
Web pages and image optimization
The content and size of a web page is one of the main factors that contribute to reducing its speed. The size of web pages is growing at an astonishing rate in recent years. According to recent figures, it has increased about 243% from 2010 to 2016.
The main content of visually appealing websites are images. Most of these images are very large and account for most of the total size of a page. According to statistics from the year 2016, about 64.3% of the content of web pages is composed of images.
As we said, a large part of the content of a website is made of images and most of them are not optimized. Image-based search engines can generate additional traffic for your website if your images are properly optimized.According to recent studies , 39% of users leave a website if their images are slow loading. Therefore, optimizing images for SEO purposes is necessary in order to reduce page load times and reduce the rebound percentage of your website .
Types of images and formats
There are mainly two types of image files: raster and vector . Raster images are widely used in web pages. They are created with software based on pixels or using a camera or a scanner. Vector graphics are created with vector software. They are used for illustrations, drawings and images.
There are several image file formats that you can use according to your specific needs:
- .jpg - JPG compression may result in some quality loss in the image. In most cases this loss can be assumed because it allows to reduce the size of the file and its visualization is acceptable.
- .png - This format is useful for large-sized images with fewer colors. A PNG file is scaled well and used for graphics, diagrams, etc.
- .gif - The gif format does not scale well. It is used for small images like icons, buttons, etc.
- .svg - This is a vector file format, SVG files have a very low image size and are very good for scaling.
- .bmp - BMP files are large in size and are usually pixelated.
What is image optimization?
It consists of compressing the images without this affecting their quality. The optimization of the images is an indispensable requirement to improve the performance of the website.
Why is it necessary to optimize images?
The optimization of the images allows a faster loading of the web pages and affects the following factors:
- Page speed : Optimized images require a shorter loading time.
- Bandwidth: Internet bandwidth is expensive. The use of non-optimized images will require a greater bandwidth.
- SEO: The loading speed of the page is one of the factors that influence to rank a web in the ranking of Google.
How can you tell if your website is slow?
Faster loading website ensures a positive user experience . There are several tools available to measure and analyze the loading time of your web page like PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom Web Speed Test and YSlow. These tools analyze the performance of your website and give you suggestions to improve it.
Optimize images for SEO
A higher ranking in the ranking is not only achieved by entering keywords in your content . Images should also be properly labeled for search engine spiders to detect them.
Images SEO Friendly
There are several techniques available to optimize the images and make them more SEO friendly . A number of image properties such as size, title and alt tags should be considered to optimize images for the Web.
In the specifications of the images of WordPress there are some fields that you must cover with keywords to be able to optimize them for purposes of SEO.
- The title of the image is displayed when the reader moves the cursor over it. The title must be formatted in Title Case and should not include hyphens.
- The legend is displayed directly below the image. This is an optional field.
- The description provides more details about the image.
- The file name should include short keywords and dashes for better optimization.
- Alt-Text is the most important field for describing the image. It is used by search engines when the image is not loaded.
Techniques of optimization of images
Optimizing images does not mean simply reducing their size. The image should not be pixelated and blurred but should have a properly balanced file size and quality.
Manual Methods
The easiest and most common is to manually resize and compress the images using image editing software such as Photoshop or Gimp.
- Photoshop offers multiple options for compressing the size of an image while maintaining its quality. The "Save for Web and Devices" option allows you to compare the original image with other compression options.
There are also plugins like "JPEG XR", "NVIDIA texture tolls" and "PNG Exported" that extend the capabilities of Photoshop. More advanced users can try them out if they want to overcome the limitations of Photoshop.
- Gimp optimizes images with its "Export as" file format option. You can choose the output file format and its quality settings and preview the output.
The "Save for Web" GIMP plugin provides additional options for optimizing JPEG, GIF and PNG images.
Automated optimization on a large scale
PHP provides integrated GD and GD2 packages for automated image optimization. These allow the resizing and manipulation of images on the server.
How to optimize images in WordPress
To optimize the images in WordPress you must take into account the following factors:
- Choose the appropriate file format. Incorrect use of a heavy image format can increase the size.
- Resize the images to match the display requirements. The built-in WordPress image editor provides options for changing the dimensions of the image.
- Lower the image quality by compressing it.
- Use lazy loading with priority for images. You should prioritize the images at the top of the page. Lower images are only loaded when scrolling through the page.
- Uses responsive images created with the size of WordPress as: thumbnail, medium size and full size.
Uses WordPress Plugins
WordPress comes equipped with a wide range of options to make your content SEO friendly. In addition there are many SEO plugins that will allow you to optimize the images of your website. Some of the most popular are SEO Optimized Images, SEO Image Optimizer, SEO Friendly Images and PB SEO Friendly Images. Let's compare them!
| Name of the plugin | Number of installations | Punctuation | WordPress Compatibility | Alt-text Options | Image size options | Options to compress the image | Lazy Load Options |
| SEO Optimized Images | + 10,000 | 4.2 | 4.7.2 | YES | DO NOT | DO NOT | DO NOT |
| SEO Image Optimizer | + 3.000 | 5 | 4.7.2 | YES | YES | YES | DO NOT |
| SEO Friendly Images | + 1,000 | 4 | 4.4.7 | YES | DO NOT | DO NOT | DO NOT |
| PB SEO Friendly Images | + 300 | 5 | 4.7.3 | YES | YES | YES | YES |
conclusion
You should not underestimate the importance of using optimized images on your website as they will influence your speed and ease of navigation. Focus on creating and using images that have the optimal balance between quality and size, this way the user experience will be much better and you will get better positions in the ranking of Google.
Thanks for the guide!
ReplyDeleteThat was highly informative
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